Garment shaper

ABSTRACT

A garment shaper adapted to give desired shape to shoulders of a garment suspended thereon and having strength to resist deformation by weight of the garment is constituted by two identical elements formed of a material having little resistance to bending stresses, e.g. foamed polystyrene. The two elements are mounted on a conventional wire or injection molded plastic coat hanger in complementary relationship.

United States Patent [1 1 Florian Feb. 18, 1975 [54] GARMENT SHAPER 2,813,668 11/1957 Griffis 223/98 [75] Inventor: John Florlan, Bakersfield, Cahf. Primary Examiner George H. Krizmanich [73] Assignee: Mobil Oil Corporation, New York, Attorney, Agent, or Firm-C. A. Huggett NY. 221 Filed: Nov. 15, 1973 [57] ABSTRACT A garment shaper adapted to give desired shape to [211 App! 416305 shoulders of a garment suspended thereon and having strength to resist deformation by weight of the gar- [52] U.S. Cl. 223/98 ment i constituted by two identical elements formed [51] Int. Cl. A47j 51/086 f a m rial having li tle resistance to bending [58] Field of Search 223/88, 98, 85 stresses, -gme p ly yr ne. The two elements are mounted on a conventional Wire or injection [56] References Cited molded plastic coat hanger in complementary rela- UNITED STATES PATENTS tlonshlp 2,123,369 7/l938 Luecke 223/88 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATEHTED FEB 1 8 I975 SHEET 1 BF 2 FIG?) 1 GARMENT Sl-IAPER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention is concerned with inexpensive garment hangers such as those used by dry cleaners for delivery of cleaned clothing. More particularly the invention concerns a disposable hanger having the capability of giving three-dimensional shape to the garment suspended thereon.

2. Description of the Prior Art In general garment hangers providedin the prior art have been of two types. Hangers to be used on a permanent basis, as in a home, have been available in forms which provide some breadth to the sloping sides of the hanger to thereby preserve a desired shape of a garment, such as a jacket or a coat. These are generally of high quality polished wood, sometimes covered with fabric.

By contrast, the inexpensive hangers used by cleaners and tailors for delivery of garments are not usually returned and the cleaner or tailor imploys the cheapest hanger available to him since a new hanger must be supplied for every garment delivered. With few exceptions, the hangers used for delivery of garments by cleaners and tailors are of a wire or injection molded plastic construction which tends to give only twodimensional support to the shoulders of a garment. Cleaners and tailors catering to an expensive clientele have filled out the garment by stuffing crumpled tissue paper in the shoulders and sleeves to avoid the distortion that results from the wire hanger alone. Inserts of light cardboard have also been used for the same purpose. A form of foamed polystyrene, unitary garment shaper is described in my copending application Ser. No. 414,486, filed Nov. 9, 1973 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a low cost garment hanger constituted by two complementary hollow bodies of foamed thermoplastic which have sufficient breadth, from front to back, to support the shoulders of a garment in a manner closely approximating human shoulders and thus provide support which preserves the shape of the garment on a hanger of a cost low enough that the hanger may be discarded after one use. This is achieved by forming hollow bodies of the thermoplastic material adapted for threading over the shank of the hook supporting an inexpensive wire or injection molded plastic coat hanger. Two of such bodies are so threaded in superposed relation but in opposing orientation. The bodies are of such shape that the portions threaded on the shank will nest, one in the other at the shank with the main portions of the two bodies extending in opposite directions on the frame of the hanger to provide, in cooperation, a shaping form ,for the suspended garment.

The shaping form of this invention is advantageously prepared by the known hot drawing techniques generally referred to as thermoforming.

In order that the shaping form be susceptible of manufacture by high speed, automatic machinery, the article must meet certain rigid requirements which impose severe constraints on permissible form of the molded article. In high speed thermoforming, a sheet of foamed thermoplastic material is heated to a temperature at which it can be drawn and is then impressed by two co- 2 operating molds. In order that the formed article may be readily and rapidly removed from the mold, it must be of such form that there are no undercuts, whereby the molded article disengages the two cooperating molds readily and smoothly to avoid breakage of the formed article or jamming of the machinery.

In order to avoid requirement for expensive space in shipping and storage, the articles should be truly nestable in the sense that each individual article fits snuggly against its neighbors in a stack. The articles must be readily removable from the nested relationship to facilitate use. That is, there must be provision for smooth, rapid denesting afforded by the shape of the article.

A garment hanger must have suficient strength against longitudinal compression under the weight of the garment that the hanger will not collapse in use. For many purposes, strength can be imparted to foamed thermoplastic articles by addition of webs extending at right angles to surfaces under stress. In the garment shaper of the present invention that expedient is not avilable. A web extending as an internal flange around the bottom edge of the form would constitute an undercut which cannot be handled on high speed machinery. A flange extending externally of the bottom edge would tend to distort the garment suspended thereon.

It is accordingly a principal object of this invention to provide a hollow element capable of use as a garment shaper and susceptible to formation on high speed molding machinery and to combine the same with an inexpensive element which will cause the combination to have the requisite strength in use..

This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the article of manufacture shown in the annexed drawings.

THE DRAWINGS The drawings forming part of this description illustrate a preferred form of the invention to achieve the objectsand advantages aforesaid.

FIG. 1 is an assembly view, illustrating the complete garment shaper as two shaping forms nested at their ends about the shank of a wire coat hanger;

' FIG. 2 is a vertical section through two. shaper bodies in disassembled relation;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a single shaper body;

FIG. 4 illustrates the manner in which the elements of the combination are assembled by threading two nested shaper bodies on the shank of the wire hanger preparatory to rotation of the the body to final position; and

FIG. 5 is a section on line 55 of FIG. 4 illustrative of nesting relationship.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The garment shapers of this invention are designed for use with disposable low cost coat hangers of wire, injection molded plastic and the like. Typically, such hangers provide support which is essentially twodimensional; that is, the horizontal dimension of the hanger from front to back of a garment thereon is so small as to be meaningless. According to the instant invention, that third dimension is supplied by two complementary formed bodies of foamed plastics, typically foamed polystyrene.

Referring specifically to FIG. 1 of the drawings, a disposable coat hanger, here shown as formed of metal wire, is indicated at 10. The wire is formed to provide a shank 11 which terminates at its upper end in a hook 12 adapted for suspension of the hanger, as from a rod, not shown. The shank 11 is integral with shoulder elements 13 extending outwardly and downwardly from the shank 11 in opposite directions and in a common plane. Usually, the shoulder elements are connected at their outer ends by a horizontal bar 14 over which second garments may be draped.

The hanger will support a coat type garment in adequate manner to preserve shoulders of such garment spaced apart to preserve freshly pressed condition of the back and front of the garment but fails to preserve the shoulder portions in desired shape because there is no support in the dimension from front to back of the garment. That deficiency is corrected by applying to the hanger two shaping elements of substantially identical form as best seen in FIG. 2 and 3.

The shaping elements, indicated generally at 15 are hollow bodies somewhat in the shape of an inverted trough having a flat or gently curved base 16 adapted to rest on the shoulder elements 13 of the hanger 10 when in use. Side walls 17 extend from the base 16 in outwardly and downwardly flared relation to each other and merge into a curved end wall 18 to cover the lower corner of hanger 10 in the manner shown, FIGS. leaving the bar 14 exposed for drape support of new sers or the like.

At the end remote from end wall 18 is a surface 19 which bears an angular relationship to base 16 substantially equivalent to the angle made by shoulder elements 13 with the horizontal when the hanger 10 is suspended by its hook 12. Surface 19 is perforated in suitable manner, an aperture or here shown as slot 20 to accommodate shank 11. It will be apparent that the perforation can be of any desired shape and that it may be preformed or may arise by punching the end of hook 12 through surface 19 at the time of assembly on hanger 10.

The surface 19 preferably terminates in a lip 21 which aids in secure nesting of the two shaper forms on the hanger in assembled relation with the lip 21 and the underside of the surface meeting in a smoothly converging relationship therebetween such that nesting of the two bodies adjacent the central vertical shank will result.

A convenient assembly technique is illustrated by FIG. 4. Two shaper bodies 15 are removed together from a nested stack of identical shapers and threaded as a unit over hook l2 and shank 11 to nest together on one shoulder element 13. When it is desired to place the combination in use,'the upper of the two so-nested bodies 15 is lifted from nesting relation and rotated 4 about the shank ll whereupon it is released to rest on the other shoulder element 13.

I claim:

1. The combination of a garment hanger and two shaping bodies on said hanger comprising:

a. a garment hanger providing two dimensional support for a garment, said hanger having a central vertical shank connected to two oppositely disposed downwardly sloping shoulder elements and b. two elongated shaping bodies disposed one on each shoulder element of said hanger to impart a third dimension of support to the combination, each shaping body having the form of an inverted trough with a base extending over a shoulder element and side and end walls flaring outwardly and downwardly from the base. one end of each elongated shaping body having an angled portion with a flat surface smoothly converging to form said angle with said base and a downward flared lip on the distal end of the flat portion so that one such portion can overlie the other in nesting relationship adjacent the central vertical shank, and an aperture through each angled portion for threading the shank therethrough.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein each of said shaping bodies is of increasing width dimension transverse of its length in the direction remote from said shank.

3. The combination of claim 1 in which the bodies are formed from foamed polystyrene.

4. An article of manufacture to impart a third dimension of support to a disposable garment hanger having a central vertical shank connected to two oppositely disposed downwardly sloping shoulder elements, said article comprising two elongated shaping bodies adapted to be disposed one on each shoulder element of a hanger, each shaping body having the form of an inverted trough with a base adapted to fit over a hanger shoulder element with side and end walls flaring outwardly and downwardly from the base, one end of each elongated shaping body having an angled portion with a flat surface smoothly converging to form said angle with said base and a downward flared lip on the distal end of the flat portion so that one such portion can overlie the other in nesting relationship adjacent the central vertical shank when placed on a hanger, and an aperture through each angled portion for threading the shank therethrough.

5. The article of claim 4 wherein said shaping body is of increasing width dimension transverse of its length in the direction remote from said shank. 

1. The combination of a garment hanger and two shaping bodies on said hanger comprising: a. a garment hanger providing two dimensional support for a garment, said hanger having a central vertical shank connected to two oppositely disposed downwardly sloping shoulder elements and b. two elongated shaping bodies disposed one on each shoulder element of said hanger to impart a third dimension of support to the combination, each shaping body having the form of an inverted trough with a base extending over a shoulder element and side and end walls flaring outwardly and downwardly from the base. one end of each elongated shaping body having an angled portion with a flat surface smoothly converging to form said angle with said base and a downward flared lip on the distal end of the flat portion so that one such portion can overlie the other in nesting relationship adjacent the central vertical shank, and an aperture through each angled portion for threading the shank therethrough.
 2. The combination of claim 1 wherein each of said shaping bodies is of increasing width dimension transverse of its length in the direction remote from said shank.
 3. The combination of claim 1 in which the bodies are formed from foamed polystyrene.
 4. An article of manufacture to impart a third dimension of support to a disposable garment hanger having a central vertical shank connected to two oppositely disposed downwardly sloping shoulder elements, said article comprising two elongated shaping bodies adapted to be disposed one on each shoulder element of a hanger, each shaping body having the form of an inverted trough with a base adapted to fit over a hanger shoulder element with side and end walls flaring outwardly and downwardly from the base, one end of each elongated shaping body having an angled portion with a flat surface smoothly converging to form said angle with said base and a downward flared lip on the distal end of the flat portion so that one such portion can overlie the other in nestiNg relationship adjacent the central vertical shank when placed on a hanger, and an aperture through each angled portion for threading the shank therethrough.
 5. The article of claim 4 wherein said shaping body is of increasing width dimension transverse of its length in the direction remote from said shank. 